Lewis Hamilton receives Toto Wolff apology as Mercedes mistake costs Brit Dutch GP win | F1 | Sport
Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton received an apology from team prinicipal Toto Wolff after a strategy error robbed the Briton of a first race victory of the season at the Dutch Grand Prix. The seven-time champion unleashed a tirade of expletives at his team after being passed by Max Verstappen, and then team-mate George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, following the safety car restart before coming home in fourth.
Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bennington apologised to Hamilton for the events that led to the Briton coming home in fourth place and promised to review the incidents later in the day. And Wolff echoed his comments, admitting their gamble “didn’t work”.
“Sorry about that Lewis,” Bonnington said over the Mercedes team radio. “Was looking good but we’ll sit down and review the decisions that we made there.” Wolff then followed that message by saying: “Yeah Lewis, sorry it didn’t work out. We did what we discussed in the morning, we took a risk. It didn’t work. Let’s discuss between us in the office.”
Hamilton responded: “”To all the mechanics, fantastic job today, the best pitstops we’ve had all year so thank you. Thank you for your continued efforts. Let’s keep pushing, we still got points today.”
READ MORE: Hamilton slams Mercedes in expletive-ridden Dutch GP radio message
“That was the biggest f*** up,” he shouted on the team radio.
And his misery was compounded when Russell, on fresher tyres, decided to make a move on his team-mate which nearly saw the two collide.
And a frustrated Hamilton unleashed a tirade of expletive-ridden words for his team: “I can’t believe you guys **** **** me, can’t tell you how **** I am.”
Verstappen now leads the championship by 109 points while Mercedes’ wait for a race win goes on after their failure to claim victory at Zandvoort.
